High Alk.....help....arggg

[Bubblewood]

Ok...looking for some good advice from you on my 240 full SPS system coming up on 1 year of running.

Here's some of the facts

Calcium reactor MRC twin chamber.

Typ -Cal, Alk, Mag.

Normal readings have been alk 7.8-8.2

Mag 1350 , calcium 420.

PH 8.10

Media in my reactor was just restock cause it was about 1/4 full.

Effluent is reading 6.7

Fairly quick drip (not a steady flow)

So I have noticed some of my SPS have lost a little color and a few has RTN.

My Alk test (Hanna) was reading 13.3!

Calcium (Red Sea) was at 320

Mag (Salifert) 1270

Not good...

So what I have done so far is did a 25% water change.

Slowed down the co2 and the effluent. This evening my alk is down to 11.98. I have been slowly manually dosing cal & mag.

The problem is I'm unable to get the alk to come down.

At this point I simply want to get back within normal ranges and maybe look into the GHL doser.

Any advice would be extremely helpful before I start having bigger issues that we all fear of.

Then any advice going from a reactor to a doser. Pros and cons.

Thanks !!!

Joe

 

[rossco]

More media in the reactor probably made more Alk&Ca production for you vs. when you had the reactor dialed in with a quarter full chamber.

I would just turn off the co2 and feed pump to your reactor ( leave the circulation pump running to keep it from getting stagnant) for 3-6 hours at a time for a few days until the alk is where you want it. My tank will drop a point and a half in a day with the reactor off line, that would be too quick a drop, especially if the corals are stressed. Keep dosing CA & mag until it's right and then bring the reactor back online.

Honestly I would keep the reactor, and just test a bit more often to keep a close eye on it so if your parameters start to drift you can adjust. No Alk/CA replacement method is truly set and forget. As your corals grow their needs increase. As far as the low calcium, sometimes salt mixes have Alk & CA in higher or lower amounts from batch to batch that will build up or decrease over time if your reactor or dosing system is spot on dialed in. It's a good practice to test water change water to make sure.

 

[ssdawood]

+1 to what rossco said. Kep the reactor, no need to panic. You have to keep checking a lot to keep in dialed in. Once its dialed in I like it better than doser. I have a doser but for my next tank I will get a reactor.

 

[jservedio]

Since your Ca is very low compared to your Alk, in addition to shutting down CO2 and Effluent for a few hours a day until your Alk drops - you should be maually dosing Calcium and Magnesium to get them back into balance with your Alk. Once your Alk is back where you like it and Ca and Mg are back in line - recalibrate the reactor.

 

[Bubblewood]

I tested my alk this morning and it went back up slightly to12.5 from 11.9. I did a water change last night. With the hopes it would reduce it a bit.
I will test my cal and mag today and see where it's at. It seems difficult to determine how much to manually dose for cal, mag when everything is a moving target. Any advice on how much can be dosed at once through out the day? I will post my readings this evening to see where things are at.
I turned down the effluent and co2 just a tad more this morning.
Thanks for all the help so far.
Joe

 

[Bubblewood]

One other thing I want to mention is that my reactor comes on (co2) and goes off every 25-30 mins. Through out the entire day. Controlled by my apex the graph looks like a saw tooth chart. Is this typical for a (on - off) time period? If it's not typical what is yours guys period run at. I understand supply and demand will set this but it cycles a lot. . Maybe this reactor is not able to keep up?
Thoughts on this also would be helpful also.

 

[Bubblewood]

So here's my update on this fiasco.
Alk is at 11.9
Cal = 400
Mag = 1400
I shut my co2 down as recommended. I'm going to recheck my alk in 7 hours.
I will continue manual dose my Calicum for a bit.
I also tested the alk on some fresh saltwater I had from last night. 10.7. Kent
I also plan on cleaning the entire reactor since it's off for a bit.